Reproductive health services: “Business-in-a-Box” as a model social innovation

Access to reproductive health services and products in remote and rural communities is a critical area of concern for developing countries. This article considers a pilot intervention in three districts of Pakistan where “Business-in-a-Box” as a model of place-based social innovation is used to improve the socio-economic conditions of women in remote rural settings through socially responsible micro-franchising. It finds that such programmes help build a sense of community, ownership and grassroots capabilities and skills. The article also discusses the impacts of such actions on the individual and community life, and the need to upscale and sustain these initiatives.     

Beyond royal politics: state transformation and foreign policy in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi politics is commonly portrayed as reflecting a system of centralised personal rule in which decision-making power trickles down from the tightly knit power circles within the House of Saud. In contrast, this paper draws attention to the empowerment of quasi-autonomous state organisations in Saudi Arabia as a result of state transformation and regional integration. At its most extreme, state transformation in Saudi Arabia has created institutional and regulatory enclaves with vested interests and areas of competence that cross Saudi borders. This paper illustrates the foreign policy ramifications of transformed statehood in Saudi attempts to further Gulf regional integration in the context of the Gulf Monetary Union project.     

Pursuing the allure of combat: an ethnography of violence amongst Iraqi Shi’I combatants fighting ISIS

The social sciences speak of violence through its meaning, performances, manifestations and representations; however, the inner workings of violence are less explored. In order to suggest a different mode of seeing violence, I explore the inner workings of violence through the pleasures of and fun among Shi’i volunteer combatants. I apply Walter Benjamin’s motion of pure means to explain how violence becomes self-referential and non-representational via combat-zone ethnography amongst Iraqi Shi’i militants who fought against ISIS in Iraq. I address the fine line between pleasure and fun in order to highlight the inner workings of violence during combat and to encourage a fresh bottom-up anthropological perspective in assessing the parameters of the persistence and resilience of volunteer combatants. My approach advocates moving beyond recruitment and ideological interpolation by questioning the allure of combat through an ontological framework that includes combatants’ perspectives and narratives.     

Terrorist violence and the enrollment of psychology in predicting Muslim extremism: critical terrorism studies meets critical algorithm studies

Discourse on terrorist violence has long facilitated an especially liberal form of securitisation. Originally evoked in reference to anarchists and communists, a rational consideration of terrorist violence, inaugurated by the concept, asks for deferred judgement about the nature of, or reasons behind, violence related to terror on the premise that state and international legal norms governing the legitimate use of violence fail to circumscribe the proper capacities of the state to regulate and explain terrorism. Where sovereign powers along with their military and civilian instruments of coercion are deemed unable to regulate violence effectively, analysts of terrorist violence and their readership are invited to consider and cultivate new sensibilities. Beginning in the 1980s, studies by psychologists found renewed urgency among a growing cadre of interdisciplinary terror experts who found religion, Islam especially, a key variable of analysis. I situate their contributions in a longer history of secular and racialising discourse about terrorist violence. Central to this history are practices of reading, translating, interpreting and archiving texts. Evidence for the argument is based on the analysis of an algorithm that allegedly predicts the likelihood of terrorist strikes by counting words spoken by al-Qa?ida leaders and correlating their frequency with over 30 psychological categories.     

仪式与暴力——论卡夫卡《在流放地》

卡夫卡的《在流放地》展示了新旧时代交替过程中，仪式与暴力的运行方式的变迁。在古旧的刑罚体系中，绘制仪、耙等工具以不同的功能在十二个小时的行刑仪式中展演暴力；而人则在仪式化的暴力下，被降级为动物性、工具性的存在，丧失反抗能力，臣服于暴力。作品中新指挥官上任后的新时代，仪式式微，权力空间从公共景观转向封闭场所，惩罚对象从肉体转向灵魂，暴力隐匿。但是，式微的仪式仍有着潜在的力量，暴力终会以某种形式复归。     

民法总则民商主体界分的制度缺陷与完善思路

民法总则关于民商主体界分的整体制度设计因自然人与法人的不同而分别遵循了不同的逻辑标准，但都直接体现或隐含了“营利性目的”的内涵。民法总则民商主体界分制度在概念使用和标准贯彻上存在逻辑缺陷，进而导致实践中可能面临诸多难题。可行的完善思路是对商自然人的主体制度建构采取由基本法确立营业权和由单行法规定具体规则的方式；用“组织”作为主体概念统领“法人”和“非法人组织”；将商组织的具体制度纳入民法典专编或者商事基本法加以规定，并且在民商主体界分时采取法律判定与事实判定相结合的模式。     

新媒介技术下中国政治传播的改变及应对

在新媒介时代,网络空间成为政治传播线上宣传的公共领域,新媒介技术成为不断推动这个领域创新发展的重要力量。新媒介技术下的政治传播格局发生改变,政治传播主体更加多元,政治传播方式更加多样,政治传播的问题也逐渐凸显。转变传统公共政治传播观念,以新媒介技术为支撑,传播优质内容,寻求与公众的政治共识,建立公共传播与公众传播的多向互动格局,增强公众对政府的信任度,能够对新媒介技术下政治传播生态的健康发展产生积极作用。     

中国特色社会主义法治理论:思想根基、主要特性与学科定位

中国特色社会主义法治理论作为中国特色社会主义法治体系的理论化表达,作为一种新型的理论形态,可以从三个方面来认知。首先,从思想源流来看,马克思主义法律思想是中国特色社会主义法治理论的思想根基。其次,从理论个性来看,中国特色社会主义法治理论的主要特性包括中国性、政治性与学术性。从学科定位来看,中国特色社会主义法治理论既是法学学科体系中的一个组成部分,同时也代表了法治理论谱系中的一种最新形态。把握中国特色社会主义法治理论的思想根基、主要特性与学科定位,既是创新和发展中国特色社会主义法治理论的前提,也是坚持和完善中国特色社会主义法治体系的前提。     

网络信息安全犯罪的定量评价困境和突围路径——大数据背景下网络信息量化标准的反思和重构

刑法对网络安全的保护立场，正由网络运行安全转向网络信息安全。刑事立法更新不断增设网络信息安全专属罪名的同时，刑事司法的定量评价体系却未能一体构建，成为网络安全刑法保护的薄弱环节。当前网络信息安全犯罪的定量评价体系缺乏明确的逻辑主线，同时适用错位的“传统法益侵害程度”量化标准和模糊的“数据规模”新型量化标准，无法满足网络信息安全专属罪名司法适用的准确性和统一性需求，导致了司法适用的困境。消弭规范和技术之间的差异，以“信息规模”为定量评价核心的基础上，建构信息价值的分层评价模型，并将“组信息”作为基础的数据规模计量单位，是大数据时代背景下，突破网络信息安全犯罪司法定量评价困境的合理路径。     

目标群体参与:精准扶贫政策执行领域形式主义的治理之道

精准扶贫政策执行领域形式主义问题突出,制约政策执行成效。欲破除其形式主义,目标群体参与不失为一种有效的治理路径。目标群体参与可促使精准扶贫政策执行从贫困村贫困户的客观实际出发,紧密联系贫困群众,克服政策执行中的“面子工程”现象,真正实现政策目标。目标群体在精准识别阶段整体参与水平偏低、精准帮扶阶段消极被动参与、贫困退出阶段参与功能弱化、脱贫考核阶段参与有效性不足等问题,引致在克服形式主义方面力有不逮。应在精准识别阶段提升目标群体整体参与水平,精准帮扶阶段提高参与主动性与能力,贫困退出阶段加强参与制度保障,脱贫考核阶段增强参与的有效性,以从根本上治理形式主义这一政策执行不良现象。